Indigenous utilization of termite mounds and their sustainability in a rice growing village of the central plain of Laos

The termites were collected from their mounds and surrounding areas and identified. Twenty villagers were interviewed on their use of termites and their mounds in the village. Sixty-three mounds were measured to determine their dimensions in early March, early July and middle to late November, 2009.Eleven species of Termitidae were recorded during the survey period. It was found that the villagers use termite mounds as fertilizer for growing rice, vegetable beds and charcoal kilns. The villagers collected termites for food and as feed for breeding fish. Over the survey period, 81% of the mounds surveyed increased in volume; however, the volume was estimated to decrease by 0.114 m3 mound-1 year-1 on average due to several mounds being completely cut out.It was concluded that current mound utilization by villagers is not sustainable. To ensure sustainable termite utilization in the future, studies should be conducted to enhance factors that promote mound restoration by termites. Furthermore, it will be necessary to improve mound conservation methods used by the villagers after changes in the soil mass of mounds in paddy fields and forests has been measured accurately. The socio-economic factors that affect mound utilization should also be studied.Wet-season lowland rice production is an important rice production system in the plain areas along the Mekong River in the central region of Laos. The average harvested area and production of wet-season lowland rice from 1998 to 2007 were 296,790 ha and 1,012,801 t, comprising 79.1% and 77.6%, respectively, of the total harvested area and production in the central region. Dry-season lowland rice and wet-season upland rice constitute the remainder of the area and production [1]. Wet-season rice is grown usually in rain-fed paddy fields because of the limited area of irrigation close to the Mekong River and its tributaries. Therefore the yield is lower and more variable among paddy plots and year-to-year than in irrigated paddy